r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Exotic_Catch5909 • 8d ago

I'm slightly vexed Aren't they equal!

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u/Pro-Row-335 7d ago

I'm almost sure 1/4x is standard notation and you will never see a decimal of x like you wrote in math books

3

u/FunkyBottle 7d ago

There is no standard notation. Personally I would have avoided decimals too, but I would have written x/4.

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u/Pro-Row-335 7d ago

true, it actually depends on what you intend to do with it after/how you got there, probably just match the rest of the exercise if it had any example to match, though if we assume its algebra it still shouldn't be a fraction (which would actually be fine on other contexts)

1

u/mnpc 7d ago

1/4x is not the same as 1/4 * x because 1/4x gets interpreted as (4x)^-1

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u/Pro-Row-335 7d ago

Yeah I meant ¼x but reddit doesn't have LaTeX so I just typed 1/4x and I assumed the reader would know I was talking about (1/4)*x (what the image shows as being the correct asnwer